Boris Johnson has vowed to pass his pandemic WhatsApp messages over to the Covid inquiry after experts managed to recover them from an old phone he had been advised not to use for security reasons.
All “relevant” material will be passed to the inquiry in unredacted form as soon as possible, the former prime minister’s spokesperson said.
However, there is one final hurdle that must be overcome before the messages are delivered to the inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, and her team.
Under rules set down by the inquiry, the Cabinet Office must conduct a “security check” of the texts, according to Johnson’s spokesperson.
“The timing of any further progress on delivery to the inquiry is therefore under the Cabinet Office’s control,” they added.
The deadline for handing over the messages demanded by Lady Hallett has long since passed.
After the government sought to challenge her authority to summon Johnson’s diaries, WhatsApps and notebooks, as well as those of a former No 10 special adviser, Henry Cook, judges in the high court sided with Hallett.
She therefore set a deadline of 10 July for the material to be handed over.
The Cabinet Office maintained it had complied with the order, and WhatsApps from Johnson’s existing phone – in use from June 2021 – had been handed over, along with his diaries and workbooks.
However, WhatsApp messages from the more intense period of the pandemic remained on a phone Johnson said he no longer had access to. He was advised not to turn the phone on again by security officials when it was revealed his mobile number had been publicly-accessible online for 15 years.
Work got under way to help Johnson safely access the old phone, so he could hand the messages on it over to the Covid inquiry.
But there was reportedly a hold-up because Johnson had forgotten the passcode, and was fearful that entering it wrongly too many times would wipe the device. It was later suggested that a passcode was discovered by government officials on a piece of paper.
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On Friday, Johnson’s spokesperson said there had been a breakthrough. However, it remains to be seen whether Hallett will be entirely satisfied.
Johnson’s spokesperson said that “relevant” messages would be passed to the inquiry. But Hallett will be keen to scrutinise the material when it reaches her, to make sure she has been given access to everything so she can decide for herself what is and is not relevant.
That was the precedent set in the ruling from the high court earlier this month.
It is understood that the Cabinet Office had not received the material from Johnson’s old phone as of Friday evening.
Contact had been made, however, so officials hope that the security checks – meant to monitor for any highly-sensitive information to do with national security – would be completed quickly.
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